Chelsea mother accused of sex with 14-year-old appears in court

ANN ARBOR, MI - A 38-year-old Lima Township mother accused of having sex with a 14-year-old boy had her case adjourned for two weeks when she appeared in the Washtenaw County Trial Court Monday, May 8.

Brooke L. Lajiness had a new hearing set for May 22.

Monday was her first appearance in circuit court. Her case was bound over to the higher court on 13 counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct when she waived her preliminary examination in district court March 30.

Lajiness is accused of exchanging nude photographs with the 14-year-old, Michigan State Police Trooper Donald Pasternak testified at a March 3 hearing where he swore to the contents of the arrest warrant.

According to a transcript of that hearing, Pasternak testified that the mother of a victim walked in to a Michigan State Police post in February to lodge a complaint about Lajiness having sexual relations with her son.

The majority of the incidents charged in the case are alleged to have occurred in the backseat of Lajiness' car in a Lima Township driveway, Pasternak testified.

Lajiness confessed to having sex with the 14-year-old between eight and 15 times and exchanging naked pictures with him over the internet, Pasternak testified.

"They started conversing and exchanging nude photographs while he was still in middle school," Pasternak said, according to the transcript.

They began having sex in the summer of 2016 while the teen was between middle school and high school, the trooper testified.